From Eden to Oblivion

November 11 - 12 & 18 - 19, 2017

In conjunction with the East Austin Studio Tour, ICOSA collective showcased work from all 20 of their artist members as they consider the topics of Utopia and Dystopia. Co-curated by Jade Walker from the Austin Art Alliance and multimedia artist and ICOSA member Alyssa Taylor Wendt, this collection of work explores the themes in a wide range of interpretations and media including sculpture, drawing, photography, painting, printmaking and video.

Jade Walker is the Interim Executive Director of Art Alliance Austin. She oversees the vision as well as the overall management for the organization. She was previously the director of the Visual Arts Center and the Courtyard Gallery at The University of Texas at Austin and ran the Baughman Center at the University of Florida. Jade is a practicing artist and received the Artist of the Year Award in 2016 from the Austin Critics’ Table. Originally from Tampa, Florida, she moved to Austin in 2005. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Florida and her MFA in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin. She sits on the Austin Art in Public Places Panel for the City of Austin and the planning committee for Christian- Green Gallery at the Warfield Center. 
http://jadewalker.org/

Alyssa Taylor Wendt is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker that works in Austin, Texas and Detroit, Michigan. Her recent projects reference themes of ritual, animism, monuments, mysticism, the primordial, architecture, gender and mortality using video, sculpture, staged photographs, sound and performance. The work tends to provoke questions in the viewer with dark and evocative aesthetics and multiple layers of perception. She earned her BA from NYU and her MFA from Bard College. Recently transplanted from New York, she has shown in numerous national and international exhibitions and performed at The Museum of Art and Design in New York, envoy gallery, The Fusebox Festival and Deitch Projects and completed residencies in Iceland and Norway. She is currently finishing her opus multi-channel video work HAINT and co-curated the ambitious group show about death and transformation Good Mourning Tis of Thee at Co-Lab Projects’ DEMO Gallery with Sean Gaulager that runs through November 25.